Manage your rights at scale

Navigate the new media landscape

When Jawed Karim posted the first video, “Me at the zoo,” to YouTube in 2005, few people could have predicted how prevalent online video would become a decade later. YouTube now has a billion unique global users who spend 6 billion hours watching videos on the platform each month.

The new media landscape presents incredible opportunities—and some challenges—for creators and media companies who want to safeguard and monetize their intellectual property. YouTube has been committed to addressing the challenges presented by online copyright and helping our community manage content rights in an evolving digital world.

Did you know that 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute? That’s more than 6 hours of video every second! Because of this vast scale, YouTube has invested more than $60 million in automated content management technology. And we work hard to ensure that rightsholders can make money from uploaded videos.

For example, many users enjoy music on the YouTube website or through the YouTube Music app. YouTube has paid out over $3 billion to the music industry—and that number is growing significantly year-on-year.

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Did you know?

YouTube reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds in the U.S. than any TV network—broadcast or cable.

YouTube has launched local versions in more than 88 countries.

Streamline your rights management

YouTube respects the rights of copyright holders and we’ve invested heavily in copyright and content management tools to give rightsholders control of their content on YouTube. Beyond copyright takedown notifications, YouTube has a tool called Content ID which is an industry-leading copyright technology that provides rightsholders with new ways to manage and monetize their content on YouTube.

Content ID allows rightsholders to automatically detect uploaded videos that contain their copyrighted content. To do so, participating rightsholders provide us with references of their content, and we’re able to check videos uploaded to YouTube against these references.

If we find a match, the rightsholder can choose to block, track, or make money from the video. Although it sounds simple, there’s very advanced technology behind the scenes. For example, Content ID can detect uploaded videos that are cropped, mirrored, framed, or modified in other ways.

Thanks to Content ID, partners can manage their content rights at scale and potentially unlock additional revenue streams. Over 90% of all Content ID claims result in monetization. If partners choose, Content ID blocks matched user uploads on an ongoing basis, so they don’t have to rely upon manual copyright takedown processes for each video.

Did you know?

Content ID scans videos uploaded to YouTube against more than 600 years of audio and visual reference content.

YouTube has more than 50 million active reference files in our Content ID database.

Uncover how Content ID works

Content ID automatically compares user uploads to third-party content. Here’s the overall flow for how rightsholders get their assets set up in Content ID (key terms in bold):

Dispute the Content ID claim if they have rights to use the copyrighted material

Content ID continuously scans new user uploads and compares to our database of partner references. In addition, Content ID takes any fingerprints generated later and scans the archive of previously uploaded videos, with priority assigned to recent videos and popular videos.

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Apply for Content ID

Over 8000 partners use Content ID to manage their content on YouTube. To qualify for Content ID, you must own or control exclusive online rights for the content you submit in the territories in which you assert rights. Common examples of items that may not be exclusive include mashups, remixes, video gameplay, unlicensed music or video, and recordings of performances.

If you’re eligible for Content ID, you’ll be required to complete an agreement explicitly stating that you’ll only use content with exclusive rights as references. You’ll also need to specify the geographic locations of your exclusive ownership.

While Content ID automates much of the process, you may want to consider allocating adequate resources to deliver references, review claims, and handle other rights tasks. If you don’t have the resources internally, you can also work with a service provider that specializes in Content ID.

In addition, any channel may submit a copyright takedown notice to request removal of a video that makes use of its copyrighted content.